Walden5

I’ve been reading Bill McKibben’s book Deep Economy and was inspired by his experiment of trying to eat only foods that came from near where he lives for an entire winter. In contemplating whether or not I could survive on foods produced only in northeastern Connecticut, Rachel, Milo and I set out on a recent Sunday to explore local food production.

I was feeling doubtful that we could realistically satisfy a balanced diet, but was pleasantly surprised to return with a decent bounty. Our best discovery was the Meadow Stone Farm in Brooklyn, CT. They produce raw goats’ milk, cheese and various skincare products. Annemarie lured us in with an array of cheeses to taste. We washed this down with fresh cider and a taste of the milk they produce. I was expecting it to be kind of earthy and, well, goaty. But the milk was some of the most delicious I’ve ever tasted. Smooth and sweet but without being overly rich. I hadn’t known this but goats’ milk is also popular with mothers as a supplement to breastfeeding. We wound up buying some milk, goat cheese and some awesome Wasabi Chevre.

From the goat farm Annemarie directed us to Lapsley Orchard where we bought Macoun and Macintosh apples, winter squash, corn, fingerling potatoes and cider.

So we have access to dairy - goat milk and goat cheese. We’ve also been buying eggs from a local self-service farm stand. I’m going to contact the owners to see if they’ll still be providing fresh eggs through the winter. There seems to be a steady supply of winter vegetables and we could stock up on apples, cider and local preserves to cover our fruit needs. There are some local vineyards that we can explore soon.

I think our next challenge will be to see if we can find someone who grows and mills grains locally. Some beer would also be nice.

So after a fun day we came home and cooked a great semi-local dinner of fried fingerling potatoes with rosemary and lemon, fresh corn and veggie burgers from Trader Joe’s.